Navigation

Figure 1: Replica of a 16th century mariner's astrolabe.

Due to my profession as a hydrographic surveyor I started collecting navigational and land surveying instruments. Over the years I used, repaired and calibrated a wide range of instruments as sextants, levels, theodolites, transits etc. Due to this I became interested in collecting these instruments as well.

In this section the navigational instruments in my collection are shown, while the geodetic instruments are shown in the Geodesy section of this web site.

ResearchInitially I started collecting from the current era backwards, but soon found out that the early instruments were hard to find and seldom affordable. Wanting to know more about their origin, construction and capabilities I started researching these instruments in 2001.

AcknowledgementsThe research I have done on early modern navigational instruments has only been possible thanks to the help of others.

My first contact was with Peter Ifland who kindly introduced me to Willem Mörzer Bruyns (at that time curator of navigation at the Het Scheepvaartmuseum in Amsterdam). To them I am much indebted as without their help and information my research had never started.

In the meanwhile others were kind and patient enough to answer my numerous requests and questions. Among them are Robert D. Hicks (for introducing me to the work by Thomas Hood), Diederick Wildeman and Anton Oortwijn (both Het Scheepvaartmuseum, Amsterdam) and Sjoerd de Meer (Maritiem Museum, Rotterdam) who supplied me with lots of information on contemporary instruments by allowing me to study period literature in their collections.

PublicationsIn the meanwhile I have written several articles on them, while the collection now mainly focusses reproductions and reconstructions of instruments for celestial navigation from the early modern times (or to be more specific the period 1590 - 1731). In addition to that the original instruments date from the 19th and 20th century.